25 Questions with Bill McEwen

This Q&A with Amiga Inc’s Bill McEwen tells not only the answers to 25 biting questions about Amiga, Inc., but also a history of what Amiga has been doing the past six years. Apparently they’ve been maintaining development of AmigaDE (AmigaOS 5.0), while developing AmigaOS 4 as a fall-back.

I’ve been following the Amiga since the 80s and I really don’t know what to say or what to think.

Apparently OS5 has been in development for 2 years and we know absolutely nothing about it, except that it isn’t AmigaDE/Intent. We don’t know if it’s based on OS 3.x or some or all of Hyperion’s OS 4 code, or the reason that their agreement came to an end. This is all we know:

“Anyone who worked, works, or is going to work on OS 4 better get paid. We have made offers to Hyperion to resolve this matter that we believe are fair, but we have been turned down on three separate occasions. At this point, we are still trying to work it out.”

Hyperion have their own Q&A aoon. What will they say about their relationship with Amiga Inc? The guessing game continues. It’s crazy!

Apparently OS5 has been in development for 2 years and we know absolutely nothing about it, except that it isn’t AmigaDE/Intent. We don’t know if it’s based on OS 3.x or some or all of Hyperion’s OS 4 code, or the reason that their agreement came to an end.

From Q13

Bill McEwen — It is my hope that OS 4 can be resolved and that product will begin shipping and be available on more than one device. We paid and know that it can run in the embedded space so I believe that there is an opportunity of seeing more than one product in that family in the next 12 months. You will also see several releases of AmigaAnywhere on various platforms and companies partnerships that will drive us forward, and you will also see some company acquisitions, where we have purchased some other company assets.

…before it went under. It’s a good thing operating systems like AROS, Syllable, and Haiku are around now to pickup the slack. Wouldn’t it be cool if someone put up a portal tracking the progress and explaining the differences of these “next generation” operating systems? I bet there would be lots of developers joining in to work on these projects in their spare time.